I am a newcomer to web-discussion regarding the tarot, and have not the time to dive into what appears to be a very extensive mix of topics over in the Aecletic forum. So I am going to start a few topics here (as free attention allots) and hope some newfound friends will enjoyably join with me in considering them. I am glad to have this opportunity to continue with my own inquiry and study of the tarot. I am ecstatic to be in the company of some of the best minds and most well-intended hearts in the field. Deep thanks to Le Pendu, JMD and long-standing companions for creating this house of enlightening history.
From my perusal of tarot websites and books published in relatively recent years, I gather that the general theory of Neoplatonic influence upon tarot development is now well established. As is commonly known, while medieval Europe had access to a limited number of Neoplatonic treatises (that subject in itself may make a worthwhile thread), often confused with works by Aristotle, it was not until the 15th century that Greek philosophers physically brought into Italy the bulk of their knowledge regarding Plato, Plotinus and associated thinkers and contemplatives.
The first mention of the triumphs as we know them appears to come from the D’Este court of Ferrara in 1442. The earliest sources containing the names and hierarchical order of the cards also point to Ferrara and Venice. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=52
I will contribute to presenting other significant Ferranese links in this topic.
One of the most important developments in the religious spheres of the time was the Ecumenical Council of Churches initiated in Venice and held in Ferrara (and subsequently Florence). That opened the door to a flood of Greek-influenced studies and fads that spread rapidly from Italy to the rest of Europe.
Although I left out of my book much of the below historical introduction, I think it is truly of import to any serious examination of early tarot development. I hope it doesn't prove to be too long-winded and generally boring to other members.
Sources are included at the end, with most of the below found in the sections on the Councils of Basel and Ferrara in the first two sources cited (my apologies for lack of specific page references). The other sources offer considerably more insight regarding this era and the Venice-Alexandria-Constantinople network in particular.
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In order to negotiate and finalize a reuniting of Eastern and Western Churches, a 700-strong Greek contingent arrived at Venice from Constantinople in February 1438. Venice was the only agreeable meeting ground that allowed proceedings to be initiated. It is of note that Venice was home to a primary monastery of Camaldolese hermits, which was established in the first half of the 13th century. (This was at a time when hermits importantly served as spiritual guides to the Templar Knights, whose primary base was in Venice.) The prior-general or head of the Camaldolese was a Florence educated humanist (indicating in large part familiarity and positive embrace of Greek studies), Ambrogio Traversari. Ambrogio had a great liking for Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Joseph II (1416-1439). Joseph’s years were coming to end (he died in his 80’s in 1439), as was the many-centuries history through which Venice and Constantinople were intimately bound together.
Venetian diplomacy was critical in the bringing together of these two quite foreign communities and cultures. For instance, Venetians calmed Italian ecclesiastics when the Greeks demonstrated seemingly disrespectful patterns such as not taking off their hats at appropriate times and – significantly – when the Patriarch greeting the Pope as Brother. (The Patriarch was aghast at the concept of kissing the Pope’s feet, which he did not do.) The Greeks stayed in Venice for a month, assessing arguments and approaches made by competing Western Church factions, and becoming familiar with their Latin counterparts.
Up to this time, Byzantium’s primary contact with the Latin Church was via Franciscan monastic presence in Constantinople. Roman bishops had a very limited knowledge base of the Greek Rite and Eastern Christian theosophy, as almost none of them spoke the language and as mentioned, there existed relatively few translations of foundational Eastern Christian worldviews. Prior to the Greeks’ participation in the Council, Franciscans had for some years (perhaps seriously beginning with Franciscan Antonio da Massa’s negotiations with Joseph II in 1422) been preparing the ground for an Eastern reunion with the Western Church. By the 1430’s, Constantinople was sufficiently under threat of being sacked by the Ottomans and Pope Eugene IV was likewise under threat of being ‘sacked’ by the Concilor factions of the Church, that both saw good reason to attempt a formal and fortifying rapprochement.
The Greeks had agreed to be taken to Venice via the Pope’s ships and not the ships of the Conciliar factions, who held that final authority in spiritual matters resided with the Roman Church as a corporation of Christians, embodied by a general church council, not with the Pope. Ecclesiastics of the Conciliar movement, which had a history of establishing and declaring alliance to anti-Popes, were holding an ecumenical council in Basel and were not agreeable about starting another council in Papal territory. The Greeks had indicated which direction their political diplomacy was taking, but spent their month in Venice listening to all sides. The Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch (or head Greek Orthodox Bishop, which in the case of the Coptic Orthodox branch centered in Alexandria was and still is called Pope) then moved on to commence a new ecumenical Council of Ferrara.
During this period, Ferrara was under Venetian influence even while it closely associated with Milan. Florence brought sea-and-east oriented Venice deeply into Italian politics (after centuries of guarded isolation from such) when Visconti took into its domain Venice’s old foe Genoa. Milan and Naples then threatened to capture Florence, which appealed to Venice for assistance. Both cities were culturally and intellectually inclined toward Greek humanism. Venetian decision to go to war with Milan permanently changed Italian politics. Over the next few decades, Venice gained control of much of Northern Italy. The Dukes of Milan were known for their ruthlessly domineering policies. In contrast, Venetian involvement with the East, and in particular Greek Orthodox Byzantium and Muslim and Coptic Orthodox Egypt, carried with it a great deal of diplomatic cachet.
Ferrara was an open and neutral conduit in which Venetians could mediate between their Eastern friends and the rest of Italy. However, Ferrara became an uncomfortable place for the Greeks when Milan-paid condottiere Nicholas Piccinino showed up. Piccinino had been leading the take-over of nearby Papal States. The Greeks at this time sent back all the valuables in their possession (except their vestments) to Venice. In 1439 the Council was moved to Florence for reasons of safety, including avoidance of the plague.
According to detailed comments made by Silvestros Syropoulos, the renowned Greek secretary of the uniat Council, the Greeks found the Italians’ process of ongoing rhetoric and incessant focus on Aristotelian philosophy (in contrast to Neoplatonic) to be exhausting and of little value. Many of them returned to Constantinople in October 1439. An agreement to reunify was established, although the population of the East in the years proceeding thereafter effectively vetoed it.
After the Council, Eugene IV sent Franciscans to establish contact with Eastern Coptic, Ethiopian, and Jacobite Churches in order to obtain their ecumenical agreement with the tentative East-West proclamations of a unitive, truly Catholic (meaning Universal) Church. The Franciscans had limited success. In 1441 Venetian merchants served as negotiators and translators in Alexandria with Coptic Patriarch John. Later that year, John sent as Coptic representative Andrew, Abbot of St. Anthony to Florence with his Venetian companions, the latter translating his Arabic into Italian and Latin and helping to convey the Coptic Church’s positions regarding the matter of unification.
Manuel II, Byzantine Emperor from 1391-1425 (seated as such only through the assistance of Venice) and father of Emperor John VIII Palaiologos who attended the Council of Ferrara, did not believe that citizens of his country would ever agree to attend a Mass that incorporated the Latin Rite. He suggested to his son that he do no more than draw out ecumenical discussions so as to keep the Ottomans in doubt as to Constantinople’s military and economic support from the West. In the end, he turned out to be correct.
Manuel II had spent his rule effectively acting as a vassal of Ottoman ruler Mehmed I, with whom he became friends. Manuel II’s wife was Empress Helena Dragash, a Serbian princess. In numerous ways, she exercised greater power than her husband and served for a period as regent until the time her son Constantine could be crowned in 1449. Regarding the triumphs, more needs to be said about the power of Byzantine Empresses, along with the substantial influence of female partners of Orthodox ecclesiastics.
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Having introduced that background, I would next like to bring up pieces of tarot card evidence connecting Ferrara, Venice, Alexandria, and Constantinople.
Henry and Owen Chadwick, ed., Oxford History of the Christian Church (Oxford: University of Oxford, 1986)
Dale T. Irvin, History of the World Christian Movement (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001)
T. Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1986)
P. Chaunu, European Expansion in the Later Middle Ages (New York: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1979)
R. S. Lopez and I. W. Raymond, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955)
B. Z. Kedar, Merchants in Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976)
W. Ullmann, Medieval Foundations of Renaissance Humanism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977)
The ‘East’: Ferrara, Venice, Alexandria, and Constantinople
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Last edited by Psykees on 23 Apr 2008, 20:15, edited 2 times in total.
Dai Leon
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